Editorial of the Socialist, issue 974

Corbyn attacks banks

Labour's poll lead narrow

National demo called for May

Corbyn's Labour can defeat Tories with socialist programme

photo Mary Finch (Click to enlarge)

"If this Tory parody of a government is so shambolic, so chronically divided, so utterly directionless, then why no astronomical Labour lead in the polls?" Owen Jones asked in the Guardian on 29 November.

He then remembered that in April, when May triggered the snap general election - partially because she and the Blairites hoped and expected that Jeremy Corbyn's Labour was facing electoral oblivion - a small Labour lead would have been seen in a positive light.

Owen Jones was one of those on the left who drew pessimistic conclusions about Corbyn's fortunes. Just six weeks before May announced her intention to call an election, Jones said "an agreement should be struck where he can stand down."

In contrast to Jeremy's fair-weather friends, the Socialist Party was confident Labour could push the Tories close to defeat - or better still out of power altogether - providing Corbyn fought on the radical programme his leadership campaign was based on in 2015. "If Corbyn fights on a clear socialist programme," we wrote on the day the election was called, including "for a Brexit in the interests of the working and middle class - he could win the general election."

As we predicted, after the launch of Labour's manifesto - and particularly the announcement of policies such as the abolition of tuition fees, a £10 an hour minimum wage, and renationalisation of railways and utilities - the election was transformed.

Crisis

It should have been, and still can be, the foundation for Labour to push ahead in the polls. But to see the task as merely waiting for the next scheduled election in 2022 is a mistake.

It risks demobilising those like the young people who not only voted for Corbyn, but in many cases mobilised to get the vote out as well.

The need for a radical programme of socialist policies must be linked to the need to mobilise all those opposed to the Tories and their austerity offensive, including fighting for free education, which could organise tens of thousands of young people into an irresistible movement for the Tories to go.

It is welcome that the TUC has called a national Saturday demonstration. But it should be earlier than the planned date of 12 May 2018, so that it can become a key organising tool of a collective union fightback on pay.

Actually, one of the dangers of the better than expected election result for Labour is that it has allowed some union leaders to justify passivity.

They hoped that Hammond's budget would end pay restraint, and will still now be prepared to wait for the Tories to implode.

But this is not certain. The establishment sees that a Corbyn-led labour government would not be a reliable tool for them, because it risks raising the expectations of the working class and big sections of the middle class.

"These are the same speculators and gamblers who crashed our economy in 2008 and then we had to bail them out. Their greed plunged the world into crisis and we are still paying the price."

These were in response to Graham Secker, Morgan Stanley's chief European equity strategist, who wrote to clients last month: "We could see the biggest shake-up in the political backdrop since the seventies. This is much more scary from an equity perspective than Brexit."

As the Birmingham bin workers and Derby and Durham TAs showed, working class voters can have their view of a Corbyn-led Labour Party affected when Blairite councillors pass on the cuts, reinforcing the idea that all politicians are all talk but no action.

It is Corbyn, not Farage, who should be leading the charge against the Brexit 'divorce bill'. May's offer of £50 billion has exposed her election stance as a self-styled 'tough negotiator' - and both wings of the Tories negotiate only in the interests of big business and the capitalist class.

This bill is based on liabilities that were not agreed by workers, young people or pensioners - but by a succession of neoliberal, pro-market Tory and New Labour prime ministers from Thatcher to Blair and Cameron.

Jeremy Corbyn should use his international anti-austerity authority to appeal to workers' and socialist organisations and parties to tear up the EU bosses' club rules and help establish a new collaboration of the peoples of Europe on a socialist basis.

The Labour leadership should demand that instead of £50 billion going to the EU, it should be spent on abolishing tuition fees, funding the NHS and raising public sector pay.

This class approach would immediately cut through the fog and confusion over the EU and expose the real business motivation of all the Tories on both sides of their division.

Democracy

But part of this strategy must be a determination to inflict a decisive defeat on the Blairites. Following its autumn conference, Labour launched a 'democracy review'.

Bring forward the national TUC demonstration, as part of a real strategy to build confidence for strike ballots on pay. Coordinate national strike action against Tory austerity

Mandatory reselection to allow Labour Party members a democratic say in who their elected representatives are - kick out the Blairites!

Open up the Labour Party. Restore the rights of the trade unions within Labour. Readmit the socialists, with the right to organise in an inclusive federation

No more cuts budgets from Labour councils! Let the Tories dare to take on councils protecting our local services

No 'divorce payments' for Brexit. Working class people should not pay a penny towards 'commitments' to the EU made not by us but by capitalist politicians

No support for the EU Single Market and Customs Union rules - like those on state aid or the posted workers' directives - that go against the interests of the working class

Fight for a socialist Brexit. For a Europe-wide campaign of socialists and workers' organisations to use the Brexit talks to tear up the EU bosses' club rules. For a new collaboration of the peoples of Europe on a socialist basis